This invention relates to a segmenting device for portionable filling in a flexible tubular casing, comprising crimping elements which can be swivelled against each other so as to overlap each other and be symmetrical with respect to the tube axis, which crimping elements together circumscribe an opening of variable size and, by reducing the opening, crimp the filled tube, the crimping elements consisting of strips the ends of which are stationarily pivotally mounted with equal spacings on a circle concentric with respect to the tube and opening axis, while their other end portions are guided in a ring which is likewise concentric with respect to the tube and opening axis and can be rotated around the same to a limited extent, such that they extend in the graduated circle of their swivel bearings in a chord-like manner and can perform both swivel and longitudinal movements with respect to the ring in their main plane.
Such segmenting device, namely for portioning individual sausages from a sausage strand, is known from DE 196 06 654 C1. There are provided at least four strips as crimping elements, which in each opening and closing position always extend in parallel in pairs and circumscribe a square (each of a different size). Regardless of their usability, it turned out in the operation of this known device that a square crimping opening in particular in the case of tubular packages of a large diameter can lead to problems in the formation of the crimping neck at the tubular casing; even if due to the reduced relative shearing movements between the tubular casing and the crimping elements the movement of all four strips during crimping represents a distinct improvement as compared to the conventional segmenting devices with two linearly or pivotally movable crimping elements with two active surfaces generally extending at right angles to each other (DE 36 10 010 A1, DE 25 50 042 A1).
It is the object underlying the invention to improve the neck formation during the closing operation of the segmenting device especially in the case of tubular packages of a larger diameterxe2x80x94while maintaining reduced shearing movements or even further reducing the neck formation during the closing operation of the segmenting device. In accordance with the invention, this object is solved in that at least three crimping elements are provided, whose active surfaces facing the opening are bent or curved in the main plane. In this way, the opening is given a shape approaching the more or less ideal circular shape of the finally obtained neck of the tubular casingxe2x80x94which is regularly permanently fixed and closed by means of likewise substantially circular closure clipsxe2x80x94, where at the same time the larger number of active surface portions at the crimping elements, which are distributed over the periphery, promotes the radial crimping of the tubular casing towards the tube and opening axis, so that shearing movements between the tubular casing and the crimping elements are omitted almost completely.
The advantageous effect of this design and arrangement of the crimping elements which, in contrast to known segmenting devices with crimping elements which are pivotable and are provided with a plurality of active surfaces extending at an angle with respect to each other, are not pivotable about one and the same axis, but about a plurality of axes distributed around the periphery, is promoted even more when bending or curving the crimping elements is effected at an obtuse angle.
In general, the crimping elements are made of a relatively thin-walled (as compared to their width) sheet. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention it is therefore provided that the crimping elements are bent twice (in a Z-shaped manner) out of their (original) main plane by substantially the thickness of the crimping elements along a line extending radially with respect to the tube and opening axis. In this way, all crimping elements can each be pivoted in the same plane, so that they need not be staggered parallel to the tube and opening axis. However, the plane of the respective one swivel axis of all crimping elements is offset with respect to the plane of the respective other swivel axis parallel to the tube and opening axis, so that the active surfaces engaging the tubular casing during the crimping operation alternately lie in the one and in the other plane in peripheral direction. However, it is of considerable advantage that even in the case of three, four or even more elements only two adjacent planes are covered by the crimping elements and thus the total thickness of the segmenting device substantially only corresponds to twice the thickness of the crimping elements.
When the inventive segmenting device is part of a spreader, which has two sets of crimping elements which in the closing condition can be moved into an axial distance from each other, the crimping elements of the second set can advantageously be mutually offset with respect to those of the first set by one quarter of the spacing angle of adjacent elements around the tube and opening axis. This will xe2x80x98roundxe2x80x99 the circumscribed opening even more, and it is possible for instance to distribute a total of four crimping elements among two sets of two crimping elements each, without returning to the disadvantages of the prior art (DE 36 10 010 A1, DE 25 50 042 A1).
In a spreader as mentioned above, the two sets of crimping elements can furthermore be rotatable and drivable during the spreading operation in synchronism with each other or against each other, in order to thus improve the neck formation even more. Moreover, it may be expedient to close the two sets of crimping elements one after the other, in order to ensure the withdrawal of tube material and to thus prevent the tube material from being overloaded in the crimping area.